Twitter map shows “geography of hate”

Students at Humboldt State University in California examined 150,000 tweets that were coded for location, and that contained racist, homophobic, or otherwise offensive terms. They then plotted the data on a map that describes were the most bigoted people in the US reside.

Or, as the article says:

…at least, where they’re the most open about displaying their antisocial views.
The picture doesn’t look good for the Eastern states, although admittedly the bulk of the population is there as well. Areas in Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, and Alabama show up bright red on the map, as do areas in more central states Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota.

Factoids:

this map is part of a larger project by professor Dr. Monica Stephens

taken from tweets posted between June 2012 and April 2013

offensive words included: dyke, fag, chink etc

students looked at each and every tweet that was pulled in by the algorithm built to capture them.

to protect the identities of the haters, locations were “aggregated” up to the county level